Talk increases of second Monti government in Italy

September 09, 2012|Barry Moody | Reuters

"I am convinced if there is a deadlock, if he is asked again to give a service to the country, he will do it. If there is a clear winner of the election that person will be prime minister or will designate the prime minister."

But politicians here said Italy must return to normal democratic processes next year after the technocrat interlude.

"The voters must decide who governs the country. That is what elections are for," said Piero Fassino, mayor of Turin and a senior member of the Centre-Left Democratic Party, which has a strong lead in opinion polls.

Angelino Alfano, secretary of Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, told reporters: "I believe that democracy is about holding elections and appointing whoever wins them to government ... Those who want Monti must put his name on the ballot paper."

But others in the PDL, which is fighting to beat off a threat from Grillo's populist forces, are more scathing about Monti.

In remarks which might worry nervous investors, Renato Brunetta, an economic minister in Berlusconi's last government, said in Cernobbio: "This country is suffering a brutal recession, the poisoned fruit of policies imposed on the Monti government by Germany.

"Enough of the technocrat government. The blackmail has finished," he told reporters. "The economic policy of the Monti government must change immediately or the country will die."

Despite such language, which is likely to become more inflammatory as the election approaches, many are sanguine about the possibility of Italy changing course.

Monti's government has tried during its short term to lock the country into reform policies aimed at cutting a huge debt and reversing a long economic stagnation.

Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit, Italy's largest bank by assets, told Reuters: "There is not much space to change policy. I am pretty confident that what Monti is doing will continue."

International economist Nouriel Roubini took a similar view. "While people worry about electoral uncertainty in Italy, in my view there is probably not going to be much alternative to some variant of 'Montismo'," he told reporters.